4th District Democratic candidates say King’s time in Congress must end

Thursday

Aug 31, 2017 at 12:01 AMAug 31, 2017 at 10:13 AM

By Gena Johnson News-Republican Editor

During the Boone County Democratic Central Committee meeting Aug. 28, county Democrats welcomed three candidates in the running to for Iowa’s Fourth District in the Iowa House of Representatives: J.D. Scholten, Leann Jacobsen and Paul Dahl.

The three candidates will compete for the Democratic nomination in the June 5 primary. The winner would then move on to run against longtime incumbent Rep. Steve King in the November 2018 election.

Scholten was the first candidate to speak during the meeting.

The Iowa native and former professional baseball player, began his speech excited to see his former baseball coach Daryl Kruse in the audience.

“We went down to Harrison, Arkansas, and won the national championship when I was 12. That was always a special memory in my life. I haven’t seen him since 1992,” Scholten said.

Scholten grew up in Sioux City and graduated from East High School, from there he attended Morningside College where he played baseball under his father.

He then transferred to the University of Nebraska where he played in the College World Series his senior year.

Scholten’s baseball career also included four seasons with the Sioux City Explorers, playing a 10 day exhibition in Cuba in 2013 and playing in Canada, Belgium, Germany, France and Netherlands.

“In between seasons, I started building a career as a paralegal,” Scholten said, which brought him out to Minneapolis, Minn. and Seattle, Wash. But, what inspired him to make his way back to Iowa was his grandmother.

“I am here, because like many first time candidates, of what happened in November. Unlike most, it wasn’t the election. It was the eight days I got to spend with my inspiration, my grandma,” Scholten said, adding his grandmother joked that he should return to take care of her. “I go, ‘Grandma I love that idea, however I don’t have the skills. I don’t think they’re going to hire me.’ She said, ‘You’re probably right,’” Scholten said jokingly to the crowd. “The last day she said something really meaningful that stuck with me. She said, ‘J.D. you should move back to Iowa and take care of the farm.’”

His grandmother passed away, he said, and while at the funeral he knew he was always going to return to Iowa to retire, but realized there was something stronger pulling him back.

“I wanted to live up to the person she saw in me and this is how I can take care of the farm - to fight and ensure every farm, farmer, city, professional, union worker, student, father, mother and child in this district has somebody in Washington putting them first,” Scholten said. “Our one slogan is ‘Standing tall for all.’ I hope it is more than just my height.”

Healthcare is his first priority, he said.

“Obamacare was a start, but it’s not the final product,” Scholten said. “What I want to do is ensure that Iowans never have healthcare as a barrier to leaving free, productive and successful lives.”

Right now, he said, we need to establish a public option and push healthcare for all.

Secondly, Scholten would like to push for economic opportunity.

“We have the resources and the innovation in this district to build a new rural economy. My vision of that is getting our traditional agriculture economy and mixing it in with the advance manufacturing and technology jobs,” Scholten said.

He said this could be accomplished by getting educators, workers and employers together to build that workforce, so when the time comes everything matches up.

“One way we could get going on that right now is creating a longtime infrastructure program, with that we need to push for rural broadband. We need to push for quality farm to market roads and push for updating our water systems,” Scholten said.

Lastly, he would like to instill Iowa values back into government.

“We need to put Iowa values back at the center of public service and unfortunately in this race, that has to be one of the big arguments,” Scholten said.

Scholten said he felt the energy of the young people in this district and together we can make the seemingly impossible happen.

“I’ll leave you with this - youthful energy, a passion for helping others and an athlete’s energy is a dangerous combination,” Scholten said. “Tell me this race is un-winnable, tell me Steve King is unbeatable and that only adds fuel to my fire.

“Working together we can build an Iowa that truly stands tall for all.”

Spencer City Councilwoman Leann Jacobsen stepped to the plate next.

“This is not Steve King country, he doesn’t get this,” Jacobsen said of Boone’s beautiful scenery.

Eight years ago, she said, is when she decided to establish roots in Iowa.

“I love Iowa, I love this quadrant of the state. I could live anywhere, but we (family) picked here and we are invested in here,” Jacobsen said.

As a councilwoman, she said she sees a lot of the challenges small towns face.

“Businesses are closing up, main streets are a little quieter than they should be and our kids are moving on to other communities in other regions and other states for better opportunities,” Jacobsen said. “I am running to create the type of communities that our kids will want to stay in and come back to. Where you can get a good paying job that has opportunity, send your kids to fantastic public schools, access to healthcare and don’t have to drive a 100 miles for it, and where you can hop on a trail or float down a clean river.”

She believes Rep. Steve King, is under representing us.

“When local communities are strong, everyone can thrive,” she said.

Jacobsen said a strong local economy would bring new jobs and employers, support public services like schools, hospitals and fire departments.

“When we come together and put people ahead of politics and common sense over politics, we can make great things happen,” she said.

Jacobsen has been a business leader for over 30 years, serving 10 years as the President of the Technology Association and is the owner of Spencer’s Bear Coffeehouse and Wine Bar and StartupCity Spencer.

“I know that strong local economies must be welcoming to a variety of businesses. Manufacturing, small business, agriculture, new technologies - you name it and small communities must be welcoming to people,” Jacobsen said, adding we have to compete to bring young people back to our towns.

She is also on the Spencer Hospital Advisory Board.

“I have seen what happens up close when there are cracks in our healthcare system,” she said. “I know how important it is to consult with healthcare professionals on the frontlines when dealing with this issue when we are talking about any wholesale changes to our system.”

She said healthcare is a right and just not a privilege for those who can afford it and encouraged individuals to fight to ensure every American has access to healthcare.

“We will preserve our rural hospitals and keep medicare and medicaid intact, never penalize the elderly and never decide that some patients are too ill or sick to care for,” Jacobsen said, adding she hopes to ensure our security of natural resources as well.

“Steve King’s time has come, 15 years of doing nothing - he has to answer for it and people are ready,” Jacobsen said.

Lastly, Paul Dahl of Webster City address the room.

“I ran for congress for the first time back in ‘93-’94,” he said, adding he was beat out during the primary by Boone resident Sheila McGuire Riggs.

Dahl said he learned from his past experience and hopes to apply those experiences to this year’s campaign.

“I don’t think you are going to match the energy,” Dahl joked to Scholten and Jacobsen. “I can get by with five hours of sleep and I drive a transit bus for Hamilton County (Mid-Iowa Development Association).”

He said he has an essential eight issues he will be campaigning for: agriculture, campaign financing, education, environment, government spending, health care, social security, and tax reform tied with increasing the minimum wage.

“I have agriculture in my background. What I want to work for is smaller scale agriculture” Dahl said. “We keep having this trend of less and less farmers and farms are getting bigger and bigger.”

He would also like to see the Iowa State University Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture continue.

As for campaign financing he said he will only be funded by contributions from residents.

He feels his general social science teaching degree from the University of Northern Iowa and other classes he has taken will bring effectiveness to the table.

“In my past, I was a librarian at the Mayo Clinic for five years and the library director for the Minnesota Department of Health for five years,” Dahl said of his effectiveness with healthcare issues.

After talking with business about tax reforms and raising the minimum wage, he found that if both of those things are not completed - the business would have to layoff people to compensate.

“For instance, a pizzeria. If you ask them to pay minimum wage and raise it to $12 or $15 they may have to layoff people. We may have to look at abolishing corporate income tax, then they won’t have any excuse why they can’t pay minimum wage,” Dahl said. “If we are going to have the minimum wage, we are going to have to figure some ways to raise some money so we can help businesses so they can continue.”